1. Introduction

Goal of the Tutorial

This tutorial aims to introduce and instruct on the concept and implementation of Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) using HTML and JavaScript.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to:
- Understand the concept of RBAC
- Implement RBAC in your web application
- Protect sensitive data by restricting access based on user roles

Prerequisites

Before you start with this tutorial, you should have a basic understanding of:
- HTML
- JavaScript

2. Step-by-Step Guide

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

RBAC is a method of restricting system access to authorized users based on their roles within an organization. It is a way to ensure that only the right individuals can access the right resources at the right times for the right reasons.

Implementing RBAC

1. Define User Roles: These are the different roles within your system. For example: Admin, Editor, and Viewer.

2. Assign Roles to Users: Assign each user a role based on their responsibilities within the system.

3. Set Permissions: Determine what each role can and cannot do within the system.

4. Enforce Access Control: Implement checks within your code that enforce the role-based access control.

3. Code Examples

Example 1: Defining User Roles

Here, we'll define some user roles in a JavaScript object.

// Defining roles 
let roles = {
  admin: { canEdit: true, canDelete: true, canView: true },
  editor: { canEdit: true, canDelete: false, canView: true },
  viewer: { canEdit: false, canDelete: false, canView: true },
};

In this code snippet, we have defined three roles: 'admin', 'editor' and 'viewer'.

Example 2: Assigning Roles to Users

Next, let's assign roles to our users. We'll create a JavaScript array of user objects, each having a name and role.

// Assigning roles to users
let users = [
  { name: 'John', role: 'admin' },
  { name: 'Jane', role: 'editor' },
  { name: 'Doe', role: 'viewer' },
];

Example 3: Enforcing Access Control

Now we'll enforce access control based on user roles using a simple function.

// Enforcing access control
function canUserPerformAction(user, action) {
  let role = user.role;
  return roles[role][action];
}

// Testing the function
let user = users[0]; // John
let action = 'canDelete';

if (canUserPerformAction(user, action)) {
  console.log(`${user.name} can perform the action.`);
} else {
  console.log(`${user.name} cannot perform the action.`);
}

In this code, canUserPerformAction function checks whether the given user can perform a certain action based on their role.

4. Summary

In this tutorial, we have learned about Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and how to implement it in a web application using HTML and JavaScript. We discussed how to define user roles, assign roles to users, set permissions for those roles, and enforce access control based on those permissions.

5. Practice Exercises

Exercise 1: Defining More User Roles

Define two new user roles: 'guest' and 'owner', and assign them appropriate permissions.

Exercise 2: Assigning New Roles to Users

Create new users and assign them the roles you created in Exercise 1.

Exercise 3: Checking Permissions

Write a function to check if a user can perform a certain action, similar to the example we discussed earlier.

Solutions

1. Defining More User Roles

roles.guest = { canEdit: false, canDelete: false, canView: true };
roles.owner = { canEdit: true, canDelete: true, canView: true };

1. Assigning New Roles to Users

users.push({ name: 'Alice', role: 'guest' });
users.push({ name: 'Bob', role: 'owner' });

1. Checking Permissions

function checkPermission(user, action) {
  let role = user.role;
  return roles[role][action];
}

By practicing these exercises, you will be able to get a better understanding of the RBAC system and its implementation.